All good points. I mean, I look at TWW's replay system and spectator tools as the gold standard for what it should look like for an RTS game. That's a good argument and while I wish we had it for this game, I also know that that took a lot of work to get right (from a developmental standpoint), and it took them years because they had the chance to evolve it for years across updates to the engine.

been lurking for a bit and i want to jump in and request this feature. SC2, company of heroes 2 and other RTSs have this feature.

The feature of replays and observer are crucial for the community to both learn from their mistakes and teach other players through their experience and the ability to playback or coach in real time. The benefit of which encourages community interaction and cohesion. which can create a business down the line for Tindalos interactive to expand on their games. Blizzard doesn't just create games it fosters and supports the communities around their games. stay a while and listen.. as the galaxy burns we will tell tales of massive ships.

if you guys need a business case of why it would be beneficial to have observer mode and replays i can come up with reasons for it or highly encourage my fellow admirals to do so.

Second, when I was seriously playing games at a top tier level I watched every single replay of every single game I played.

We learn more from the losses. “What did I do wrong?” “How did my opponent do that” etc.

The academic journey from a good player to a great player is learning from the victories too. “How could I do better” “what mistakes can I clean up” “how did I miss exploiting my enemy”

No replay system means we can’t do that. And for that matter, no one in the community can either.

No observer mode would be workable if they had replays. But the combination of both being absent is crippling.

More and more these days, communities are the content creators that give longevity to a title. The harder you make that system the less coverage and spotlight your product will get.

Just because some people can use twitch to broadcast doesn’t mean everyone will. Or that people who prefer YouTube videos to get/produce their media will opt to jump through hoops to make said content. Especially when they can make more content quicker using other game products.

The more I examine this issue the more this games release feels like a cash grab. It’s a sequel, so that feels weird to say. But it’s becoming more evident there are zero plans for in depth post launch support.

Maybe a content pack down the road, but nothing of actual substance.

There isn’t even a system or UI elements in place to support a 2vs2 in house game let alone spectators

After lurking the forums the past couple weeks, I finally registered just to add a +1 to this thread for replays/obs mode. Really digging the MP so far in this game and with so few RTS/RTT options these days, I'd love to see this game get more attention and longevity for the MP player base.